Coeducational playgrounds at Les Bases School, Manresa

In this project, we have developed the entire process of assessment, design and construction of different elements for the school playground. The main goal has been to apply feminist  strategies to re-balance the use of spaces, providing qualities and elements to all the available space beyond the paved sports court.

We have worked from a co-creative design process based on the result of a participatory assessment developed with groups of students, teachers, staff and families.

The challenge of this project was to ensure that the action could cover the entire size of the playground with a tight budget, as it  is usually the case with most playground budgets. The strategy was to develop different interventions that, distributed in different points of the space, could improve the conditions of many activities that were already happening, as well as encourage new ones (meeting and talking, experimenting with the soil, dancing or carrying out diverse movements and symbolic games…)

A set of structures have been designed and built, most of which were made during a community construction day with families. Among them, the following have been installed: a sandpit with platforms, an Agora-board, a set of hexagonal benches, platforms with large cushions and a movement area. In addition, we have installed two structures we designed: a sand circuit and an experimentation table.

In order for the school to continue working on the conditioning of the playground, a list of pending actions has been made to improve environmental comfort by generating shade and increasing the density and diversity of vegetation.

The physical intervention of the spaces is associated with functional and relational recommendations from a feminist perspective.